The AmericInn by Wyndham Fairfield held a Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, August 6th to celebrate the completion of an extensive interior renovation, marking a fresh chapter for one of the region’s most visited hotels.
Located at 2104 South Main Street in Fairfield near the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 34 south of town, the hotel completed renovations in mid-May after work began in April.
General Manager Autumn Brooks, who has been with the hotel for nearly five years, said the overhaul touched virtually every corner of the property.
“Everything from new bedding, new mattresses — there are now bulk amenities in the bathrooms to where guests have more ease of using those bulk amenities versus the travel size containers,” Brooks said. Hospitality Manager Phillip Vandenberg noted that the new bathroom amenities have been a particularly popular addition, with body wash replacing the traditional soap bar among other upgrades, and that he also loves the new artwork throughout the property. Hotel reviews have gone up more than 20 points in the last year and have spiked since the renovations were completed.
All 63 guest rooms received updates, along with the conference room and all common areas. The hotel also introduced an American-themed art package throughout the property. “I truly love the artwork,” Brooks said. “That’s one of the things I was really excited about — the new artwork. It’s more contemporary, and it makes it have more of a homey feel. The prior artwork we had was more abstract, and this makes it feel more homey as well.”
The hotel also implemented a new housekeeping policy alongside the renovations. Rather than servicing rooms every day, housekeeping now checks in with guests after their third night of stay. “We don’t necessarily make them do it every day, but definitely after that third day to go in there and get that room tidied back up for them,” Brooks said.
The hotel offers three suite options for guests looking for a premium experience. The first is a two-room suite without a hot tub, featuring a separate living room with a sleeper sofa and a bedroom, each with its own television. “If you’re sitting out in the living room area, you can watch TV, and then you go put your feet up and relax in a nice comfortable bed — that TV in the bedroom area is available as well,” Brooks said. The second is a one-room pool suite featuring a hot tub and a more spacious layout. The third — what Brooks called the crème de la crème — is a two-room suite with both a separate living room and a bedroom that includes a hot tub. Brooks said her personal favorite is actually the two-room suite without the hot tub. “It feels more of a homey, like your own little apartment kind of thing,” she said. “That’s probably my favorite room — the two-room non-hot tub suite.”
The handicapped rooms have also been upgraded with motorized blinds to make them easier to use for guests with mobility challenges.
The pool and hot tub are also available to the public for a fee. Brooks said open swim is offered Monday through Friday from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. for $8, with guests signing a waiver upon arrival. “During the winter months, I do change those hours and it goes through Monday through Sunday, including those weekends, to where people can come in on those weekend days to utilize that pool and hot tub,” she said. The pool area also received brand new furniture, including new chaise lounges, as part of the renovation.
In the lobby, the hotel recently switched to Seattle’s Best Coffee and Teavana Teas. “Seattle’s Best Coffee — it’s part of the Nestlé brand and kind of like a Starbucks affiliate,” Brooks said. “That’s been a big hit of the brand. We have coffee, water, hot tea, and hot chocolate available 24 hours.”
Breakfast is served from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. and is open to the public for $10 per person. Brooks said the breakfast spread sets the hotel apart. “I’ve been doing this for 27 years — I’m not just being biased, but we probably have the best breakfast,” she said. “Even from sliced avocados — people, that is a big hit. A very different variety of things that guests can choose from.” The menu includes pastries, eggs, sausage, protein options, chocolate milk, juices, and fruit. “Sometimes you don’t want fast food or something like that — you can just come sit down and that is an option,” Brooks said.
The hotel bar is open to the public from noon to midnight, with last call at 1:50 a.m. “We sometimes keep it open past that midnight mark if there are people in there,” Brooks said. The bar offers craft domestic beers, wine by the glass, Crown drinks including Crown Apple and Crown Cola, seltzers, and complimentary popcorn. Pizza is also available for purchase at the bar or to take back to a room. “They can either eat that at the bar or take it back up to their room — whatever they would like,” Brooks said.
The fitness room is open 24 hours exclusively to hotel guests and features a treadmill, elliptical, weights, a water cooler, and a television. “There are people that are leaving for work by 6 a.m. — it is a 24-hour gym,” Brooks said. “You just have to be a guest. That’s one thing that’s not open to the public — the gym.”
The meeting room is available for public rental at $25 for a couple of hours, $75 for a half day, and $125 for a full day. It includes water and coffee service, an 80-inch TV with HDMI hookup, whiteboards, a small kitchenette, and optional cookie service. A business center with a computer and printer is also available to guests around the clock. “If they need to print off boarding passes, just get on the computer and print something up — that is 24 hours as well,” Brooks said.
Brooks credited her staff for the hotel’s continued success. “They are the steam behind my engine, as I like to say,” she said. “A lot of my staff have been here for the duration that I’ve been here. So that says something about what we have going on. Great staff, great owners — management company always has my back, and if anything is needed, they are there for me.”
